Small amounts of organo-sulfur compounds in refinery or chemical plant streams are known to have a variety of undesirable effects. For example, they can poison catalysts, impart unpleasant odors and promote oxidation and gum formation in petroleum based fuels and lubricants. They can also form air polluting sulfur oxides on combustion. Volatile mercaptans, disulfides, and monosulfides are particularly difficult to separate by conventional distillation methods due to co-distillation and azeotrope formation. It is, therefore, desirable that a simple process be found to remove these volatile impurities from such chemical plant and refinery streams.
It has been found that volatile mercaptans, disulfides, and mono-sulfides can be readily removed from refinery and chemical plant streams by simply contacting such streams with certain reactive polymers.